Learn Hardcore Indonesian: Ibu mulai pilek karena kehujanan ketika pulang dari pasar. - Mother is starting to have a cold because she got rained on when coming home from the market.

“My mother”
- If the speaker is talking about their own mother, they can simply say Ibu without saya.
- Ibu mulai pilek… is naturally understood as “My mother started to get a cold…” if said by the child.
“Mother” as a family title
- Within a family, people often say Ibu instead of mama, mom, or she.
Polite form of address for an adult woman
- Like “Ma’am” or “Madam.”
- E.g. Ibu, mau ke mana? = “Ma’am, where are you going?”

In your sentence, without more context, the most natural reading is “My mother” (the speaker’s mother).

Why is it mulai pilek and not something like mulai menjadi pilek?

In Indonesian, mulai (“to start”) can be followed directly by:

a verb:
- mulai makan = start eating
- mulai bekerja = start working
an adjective-like state that functions like “to be X”:
- mulai sakit = start getting sick / start feeling sick
- mulai panas = start getting hot
- mulai pilek = start getting a cold / start having a runny nose

You normally do not add menjadi here.
mulai menjadi pilek is grammatically possible but sounds unnatural and overly wordy for this context. Native speakers just say mulai pilek.

Is pilek “a cold” or just “a runny nose”? How is it used?

Pilek in Indonesian usually refers to:

A runny or stuffy nose, often with sneezing.
By extension, a mild common cold, especially when the main symptom is nasal (rather than full-body flu).

Usage:

Saya pilek. = “I have a cold / I have a runny nose.”
Anak itu pilek sejak kemarin. = “That child has had a cold since yesterday.”

For stronger illnesses:

flu = “the flu” (often more serious, fever, body aches)
masuk angin = a cultural term for feeling unwell / bloated / chilled, not exactly “cold” or “flu”.

In your sentence, mulai pilek is best understood as “started to catch a cold / started to have a runny nose.”

What does kehujanan mean exactly, and why not just use hujan?

Hujan is a noun: “rain.”

Kehujanan is a verb-like form (ke- -an) meaning:

“to get rained on,”
“to be caught in the rain,”
typically unintentionally or unpleasantly.

Compare:

Dia kena hujan.
Literally: “He/she got rain (on him/her).”
Meaning: he/she got rained on.
Dia kehujanan.
Very natural, compact way to say the same thing; often implies inconvenience or discomfort.

You can’t just say karena hujan to express “because she got rained on” — that would be “because (there was) rain,” which is more like “because it was raining.”
To express the experience of being rained on, Indonesian uses kehujanan.

What is the nuance of the prefix-suffix ke-...-an in kehujanan?

The ke-...-an pattern often has the sense of:

An involuntary experience or
Something that happens to you, often negative or inconvenient.

Examples:

kehujanan = to get rained on (caught in the rain)
kedinginan = to feel too cold / be chilled
kepanasan = to feel too hot / overheated
kelaparan = to be starving
kehausan = to be very thirsty

So karena kehujanan conveys that she unintentionally got soaked by the rain, which then caused her to start catching a cold.

What is the difference between ketika, waktu, and saat for “when” in this sentence?

All three can introduce a time clause meaning “when”:

ketika pulang dari pasar
waktu pulang dari pasar
saat pulang dari pasar

Differences in nuance/usage:

ketika
- Slightly more formal/neutral, common in writing and speech.
- Very natural in your sentence.
waktu
- Literally “time,” also used as “when.”
- Slightly more casual; extremely common in spoken Indonesian.
saat
- Literally “moment”; feels a bit more formal or literary, but also common in news, narration, etc.

All three are acceptable; ketika is a good default, especially for learners.

Why is there no subject after ketika? Why not ketika Ibu pulang dari pasar?

In Indonesian, you can omit the subject in a subordinate clause when:

The subject is the same as in the main clause, and
The meaning is still clear.

Your sentence:

Main clause subject: Ibu
Subordinate clause: (Ibu) pulang dari pasar

Because it’s obvious that the same Ibu is “going home from the market,” Indonesians usually just say:

ketika pulang dari pasar
literally: “when (she) was going home from the market”

You can say:

ketika Ibu pulang dari pasar
This is also correct and a bit more explicit, but it’s not required.

Why is it pulang dari pasar and not pulang ke pasar? How do dari and ke work here?

pulang = “to go back (home / to one’s base)”
dari = “from”
ke = “to / towards”

The pattern is usually:

pulang dari [place] = return from [place]
pulang ke [home/place] = return to [home/place]

So:

pulang dari pasar = go home from the market
pulang ke rumah = go home to the house

In your sentence, she is:

returning from the market (so dari pasar is correct),
presumably going to her home (implied, not stated).

How do we know this sentence is about the past, since there is no tense marking?

Indonesian does not mark tense (past/present/future) the way English does. Instead, it relies on:

Context / common sense
- Ibu mulai pilek karena kehujanan ketika pulang dari pasar.
  The action of going home from the market and getting rained on is naturally understood as something that already happened.
Time expressions (if needed)
- Kemarin Ibu mulai pilek… = Yesterday, Mother started to get a cold…
- Tadi pagi Ibu mulai pilek… = This morning, Mother started to get a cold…
Sometimes adverbs like sudah (“already”) or akan (“will”) are used, but they show aspect or intention, not pure tense.

So the sentence is understood as past because of real-world logic and context, not because of any specific tense marking.

Can I change the word order to start with the time clause, like in English “When she was coming home from the market, …”?

Yes. Indonesian allows both orders:

Original:
- Ibu mulai pilek karena kehujanan ketika pulang dari pasar.
With the time clause first:
- Ketika pulang dari pasar, Ibu mulai pilek karena kehujanan.

Both are natural.
If you put the time clause first, it’s standard to add a comma after it in writing:

Ketika pulang dari pasar, Ibu mulai pilek karena kehujanan.

What is the difference between karena and gara-gara for “because” in this kind of sentence?

Both can mean “because,” but they differ in tone:

karena
- Neutral, standard, can be formal or informal.
- Safe in almost all contexts (speech, writing, news, essays).
- Ibu mulai pilek karena kehujanan. = Mother started to catch a cold because she got rained on.
gara-gara
- More colloquial and often carries a slight negative / annoyed tone:
  - “because of (this annoying/undesirable thing)”
- Example:
  - Ibu mulai pilek gara-gara kehujanan.
    Sounds like: “Mom started to catch a cold because she got rained on (ugh, thanks to that rain).”

In neutral narration (like in a textbook or story), karena is the better, more general choice.